war by the end of this month. >> reporter: heading into charlotte, political analysts say president obama will need to counter romney's message that the hope and change candidate didn't dlifer. >> obama has to make two cases, one, that things were really bad before and he made them better and two, in the second term, he'll make them better than romney would do. >> reporter: a potentially sharp task with sharply divided electorate. i was with nbc news traveling with the president in sioux city, iowa. >> reporter: this is ron mott with the romney campaign. today mitt romney and paul ryan campaigned separately in the buckeye state, both greeted by enthusiastic crowds. mr. romney appeared with senator rob portman and house speaker john boehner in cincinnati. >> one of the promises he made was he was going to create more jobs. today 23 million people are out of work, stopped looking for work or underemployed. let me tell you, if you have a coach that's zero and 23 million, you say it's time to get a new coach. >> reporter: his running mate, paul ryan, meanwhile carried the sports theme further